Gentlemen, I have some questions about
USS Houston in regards to her appearance during Dec 1941 to March of 1942. I know this is a highly disputed subject area and a proverbial can of worms but bare with me please. All photos are from CA-30s website:
http://www.usshouston.net/I've come across these shots of her in Darwin Harbor circa Feb 1942.
Here's the famous shots of
USS Peary (DD-226) alongside:
Enlargement of the last one:
Here's an artist's conception of her paint scheme Feb 1942
I know the ships of the Asiatic fleet were ordered to be painted into Ms. 1 camo but since they didn't have enough (or any at all) of 5-D they used a custom mix of what they had and Cavite Blue was born.
Question one, WHEN was that order given and is there any info, documentation, whatsoever, of which ships were painted in Cavite Blue?
Question two, Were all of the ships of the Asiatic fleet still in pre-war gray come Dec 7th or had some of the other schemes come into use like Ms. 1, 2, 11, 12 or 21?
The issue I have with those photos is two fold. In the first one you can clearly see that she is wearing a very dark color (known to be Cavite Blue) on her hull and most of the superstructure. Her forward superstructure, mainmast, and maybe even the forward funnel appear to be in a much lighter color.
Question three, would that light color be 5-L or could it be pre-war Standard Navy Gray indicating that she was undergoing a re-paint but hadn't finished yet?
In the following two photos with DD-216 alongside things seem to change. I know the photos are small and on the blurry side but the tones are still there. If you look at both ships hull's, they appear to be a very dark color while everything above the main deck on CA-30 appear to a very light color.
Question four, could that be further evidence of her undergoing a re-paint and it was simply shot earlier than the other photo or could that be overall Cavite Blue at the time and the lighting is simply playing tricks?
I know trying to tell color from black and white photography is far from an exact science but you can clearly tell that which tones are the same and which are different.
Since the photos are sparse and not precisely dated its impossible to draw exact exact conclusions. I'm simply looking for educated guesses guys. I'm working on a project about the Asiatic Fleet and want to do some posters of the ships with color profiles. A model of her during this time period is on my "to-do" list as well. I know we'll probably never the exact colors but I want to try and make them as accurate as possible given today's information.
Any and all help is appreciated as always.
Thanks for looking,
-Mike